This Weekend: 23rd, 24th & 25th September

If you enjoyed the skaters in Central Station at the start of the month, you will be keen to check out the Antwerp City Drops agenda for this weekend -urban sports events will be taking place at various locations around the city, including a skate contest for which you need to register by email.

It’s the opening of the Havenhuis at the port. You can’t have missed the appearance on the Antwerp skyline of this amazing prestige piece of architecture, designed by Zaha Hadid, above the old fire station. Events to mark its public opening on both days this weekend.

If you’ve been to Hand Gemaakt markets at KAVKA and other locations around Antwerp, you might want to head to their new creative pop-up this weekend at Oever 21 -open from 10.30 -6 on Friday and Saturday, and 12-6 on Sunday.

And over both days Antwerp artists are opening their workspaces around the city for Open Ateliers 2016. I’m by no means familiar with all the ateliers, but this summer I visited the MAF atelier (Steegsken 6) and can recommend that one if you are after something completely different …

And two free Zumba sessions (2-3pm and 4-5pm) on the Gedempte Zuiderdokken in conjunction with Think Pink ‘s Gezondheidsdag (Health Day) who are also holding the Race For The Cure on Sunday (see below).

It’s Dag van de Klant in various local shops and businesses in the shopping areas, so you might be able to pick up freebies and goodies. Put your postcode (2000 if you are shopping around the centre of town) into the search frield to see which shops are taking part near where you will be.

Sunday

It’s the last Lambermontmartre for 2016, starting from midday. If you haven’t made it to any of the others, I recommend it as a relaxing afternoon out. You can browse the work of local artists, listen to some music and there is always a stand to get a sandwich, piece of cake and a glass of wine. Kids are usually happy to be taken along ,as one of the stands supplies them with paint and card to make their own artworks, for a small price.

Meanwhile at Bar Paniek, it’s all getting very rustic with their Farmer’s Ball … from 2pm.

Krugerplein is always a great location for neighbourhood parties –Bouger Bouger starts at 10am and continues thoroughout the day until 6: food, drink, music, a fleamarket, and again kids are usually pretty happy to be taken along as there is a good-sized playground on one side of the square. Their parents might enjoy a drink at Bar Leon which is also on that side of the square and has a handy terrace for keeping an eye on the kids.

Support the runners of Race For The Cure. Registration is now over (although not needed for the Kids’ Run) so come along to support the runners.UPDATE: Due to the popularity of this event, the deadline for registering has been extended and you can still register throughout Thursday...

The warm, mild September is predicted to continue with low chances of showers and warmest temperatures predicted for Saturday (23 degrees).

Caffeine heads will be pleased to know that starting on Monday (26th) it’s Antwerp Coffee Week . You can find the full program in English here. You will need the Yelp app for some of the events.

ISF Active English teach English in a fun way to children up to 11 years old, after school at De Brug school, Zurenborg. Lessons taught by native English/ very experienced professional teachers, start at 16.10 and last for 40 minutes. Trial lessons are always possible. On Wednesday afternoons, it is time for creative fun. Children learn English through art, drama, music, cooking & games…13:00 – 15:00. These classes are very practical and always include lots of theme-based fun. Last week our theme was ‘Sharks’!! See the Facebook group (ISF Active English) for more information. (Images courtesy of ISF).

artwork by Leo Reijnders

A reminder about the postcard art project by Leo Reijnders, which has recently featured in Het Laatste Nieuws! It is not too late to be involved in this project:

To mark its 10th birthday, CLOUDKNITTERS is organising a MAIL ART PROJECT “The Sky’s The Limit” and is inviting every artist we know to participate and make a Mail Art Work, the size of a postcard. We also should like each artist to invite all his/ her artist friends and colleagues to do the same: our aim is to make an ‘artistic footprint’ of the Cloudknitters network.

These small pieces of art will be exhibited during the CLOUDKNITTERS 10- YEAR festival that lasts from 30th September until 23rd October in the Old Bourse, Hofstraat 15, 2000 Antwerp (Belgium)

This Old Bourse is the oldest stockmarket of Antwerp for international trading. The Pagadder Tower (1533) was a watch-tower whose purpose was to spot ships so they could be compelled to pay excise duties. This happened during the Spanish occupation, and the tower was manned by officers who were considered too small to fight. Pagador means paymaster in Spanish, but here in Antwerp they still use the word ‘pagadder’ (affectionately) for a small girl or boy.

Each of the little Mail Art works will be used for a video and will be exhibited on the internet.

On the last day of the exhibition, all of the works will be sold for 20 euros each and this money will be used to fund the Cloudknitters festival.

Thus, all the works that I receive before 23rd October can be part of this project. It starts from the moment you read this …until 23 October 2016. The theme is “THE CLOUDKNITTERS”.

SWAAJP is an impro theatre group who describe their shows as “full of new stories, surprising adventures with intriguing plot twists, sometimes emotional, frequently hilarious, always made up on the spot” Swaajp Improtheater presents the first episode of their new regular improv theatre show ‘Swaajp Invites’: the guest for this show -on the 1st October -is Daniel Malmqvist (Sweden) and the show is in English. Tickets are 9 euros- available now via the website -seating is limited in this lovely -but petite- venue (BATS Little Theater), so don’t delay (image courtesy of SWAAJP).

Don’t forget Storytime, which offers read-aloud and activities in English for children aged 4- 11 every Wednesday.

Last week’s post was one of the most successful since I began this blog nearly a year ago – so huge thanks to everyone who reads, shares and says nice things about it! Thanks also to those who get in touch with information about their low/ medium budget or free events, and everyone who has liked and commented on posts.

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Don’t forget to find me on Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ and also Instagram, where you can see pictures of events featured in the posts -most recently last weekend’s car-free day and Wild Jo’s Market. Feel free to tag your own Antwerp Insta pics with #nessascityblog too.